Scotland

Ben Weatherall is the favourite game supplier to many London chefs, counting Mark Hix, Jeremy Lee and Rowley Leigh among his clients, but he will also deliver to private customers. The game is sourced from shooting estates in Yorkshire and Scotland, and is processed at a high-tech plant that is fully compliant with modern hygiene regulations. The game is only judged to be saleable if it is in perfect condition, so there are no smelly birds or meat heavily bruised with shot (expect to find the odd bit, though). For Christmas Weatherall can put together a useful Festive Box, containing 2 boned pheasants stuffed with Cumberland sausage, 4 partridge breasts, 500g game pie mix, 500g topside of venison, 500g diced venison for casseroles, and a pack of 4 pheasant breasts, for £59. Orders can also be tailor-made; contact for prices.

Earthy Foods and Goods is a warehouse-style food market on Edinburgh's south side, specialising in free range, organic and local produce. You can order from many of the 100 farms around Edinburgh and the Borders that supply them, including excellent hams from Piperfield and free range geese from Alehill, near Eyemouth.

Queues stretch round the block outside Forsyth's, Peebles' deservedly famous butcher. For Christmas they're stocking free range White, Bronze and organic turkeys (£10.25, £11.40 and £14.50 a kilo respectively) from Tom Copas (who keeps them in orchards on his farm by the Thames) and rather more local free range, organic geese (£12.85 a kilo) from the Borders. Beef and lamb are from local farms. Forsyth's is also a notable baker: gingerbread, shortbread and Selkirk bannocks are all made on the premises.

Stuart's of Buckhaven

Stuart's of Buckhaven is a perfect small, family-run chain in Fife, over 150 years old, with 16 bakeries and three meat shops, doing proper old-fashioned butchery. They're good for game and meat pies, as well as the Christmas staples. And Irn-Bru sausages (ahem).

A bit different – try an Italian Christmas feast in the shape of porchetta, the boneless roast of rolled young pork stuffed with herbs and flavour. The multi-award-winning Peelham Farm near Berwick-on-Tweed (itself no longer part of Scotland of course, but Peelham Farm is still north of the border) do these from their herd of organic Tamworths, which live outdoors and are fed on the farm's own barley and beans. There's also bacon, sausages, salamis and the farm's home-grown veal, lamb and beef. Christmas present notion: Peelham now operates a scheme whereby you can own your own Tamworth piglet, visit it, help with its progress and its (delicious) demise. Peelham produce is also at Edinburgh Farmers market on the 1st Saturday in the month, and at Hawick (third Friday) and Kelso (fourth Saturday).

Hogmanay and there's nae meat pies? A festive season saviour, best eaten with an expensive shiraz of high alcohol content, or a nice cup of Bovril. Paul Boyle of Boghall Butchers of Bathgate, Lothian is three times winner of the World Scotch Pie Championships – traditionally made of mutton, in a glorious greasy, crusty casing - which is quite a record since the competition has only been held 10 times.

Millers of Speyside is a small slaughterhouse in Morayshire's Granttown specialising in "happy meat" – carefully handled so the animal remains unstressed in its final hours. The pay-off for this is clear: Miller's is a major exporter of beef and lamb to top restaurants in France – they're impressed by the quality, taste and 28-day dry ageing done in the old-fashioned way. So is Notting Hill haute couture butcher David Lidgate and numerous restaurants. Their Aberdeen Angus steaks are so special they'll work as Christmas presents.

Ramsay of Carluke, just south west of Glasgow, is the best-loved butcher in reach of the city. Great particularly for home-cured and smoked hams, traditional bacon and sausages (Ayrshire, outdoor-reared). The Hairy Bikers choose Ramsay's black puddings, apparently, and they also make what some believe to be the finest square sausages in Scotland.

Butcher Alan Elliott opened Dalbeattie Fine Foods in 2004 on his 19th birthday, and since then he's harvested awards for his black pudding, haggis and steak pie, including all-Scotland champion haggis in 2007 and 2008. He uses a traditional mix, in the classic "bung" shape.

North and central England, Wales and Northern Ireland

As any foodie knows, stress significantly impairs the quality of an animal's meat. Few farmers, however, go as far as Graham Head to ensure that their pigs have a happy life, and death. He even familiarises his rare-breed Middle Whites with the truck that will eventually take them to slaughter, in order to try and make it as peaceful a journey as possible. Such perfectionism naturally appeals to Heston Blumenthal, whose Fat Duck restaurant Head supplies. The Piperfield glazed hams are very popular at Christmas. Their chipolata sausages and bacon, meanwhile, make for the ultimate pigs in blankets.

This is a producer that has raised the bar for organic and cures organic pork from its own farms. It is no longer simply OK for organic to have the right eco-principles (and it often does not), now it is right that it tastes good, too. Daylesford achieves both aims, especially with their range of meat. Choose from their Alderton (cooked) ham, baked with marmalade, or Wiltshire honey-mustard-glazed ham. Aberdeen Angus beef; veal from their Gloucester dairy herd; and British breeds of lamb and poultry are also available. They also have a butcher's shop in Pimlico Road, London, selling the full range of their home-reared meat.

A small producer in the heart of England rearing their own Large White pigs naturally, sending them to slaughter locally and then home-curing the meat. They make a spectacular "Celebration Ham" with the hock (foot) left on, that will look fabulous brought to the table. They also make a great demerara and mustard glazed baked middle gammon, and good bacon and sausages. Sausage meat for turkey stuffing also available.

• Longville in the Dale, Shropshire; 01694 771312 for nearest stockist• Last orders: 13 December 2010

Specialising in small hardy breeds of sheep with intriguing names - Welsh Speckleface, Beulah and Badger Face - reared on the wild grasses and herbs of the Welsh uplands to give their excellent flavour, Graig Farm Organics also sell other meat and poultry, including goat.

Lord Newborough's home-farmed Norfolk Bronze turkeys are reared in an exemplary organic system, spending their lives foraging outside and fed on home-grown feed. They are slaughtered on site at the farm's own abattoir, reducing stress, and hung non-eviscerated and dry-plucked. All packaging for home delivery can be recycled. The farm's beef, gammon and game is also recommended. If you are in the area, drop in to the estate's own transport café before picking up your Christmas groceries, where you can eat a sumptuous organic burger or a full "Welsh" breakfast in a cabin on the side of the road.

Seldom Seen Farm has held its strong reputation for high standards and delicious birds for over a decade for good reason. The goslings on Robert and Claire Symington's farm hatch in May and feed on grass and home-grown wheat and potatoes throughout the summer. Their meat is a wholesome golden colour and flavour is deep and herby. All birds are hung non-eviscerated for 10-14 days, and they are dry-plucked - essential for a crispy skin. A three-bird roast is also available: a boned goose stuffed with a boned chicken, stuffed with a boned pheasant and layered with spiced pork-and-orange stuffing. Goose fat is available in 1lb jars, for roasting the potatoes.

John Franklin's remarkable small poultry farm stands out from all but a few of its peers. All criteria, from husbandry through to butchery, are met to ideal standards. The birds are slow-grown over a period of six to eight months depending on breed, twice the time given for intensively reared turkey to reach a weight suitable for slaughter. The birds roam free on pasture, foraging for grasses, herbs and grubs, important elements for flavour. They are slaughtered on the farm's own abattoir - no need for transport means stress to the bird is low - then dry-plucked and hung non-eviscerated (with guts in) for crisp skin and meat with extra flavour. Bronze turkeys, Legarth White geese, Hubbard chickens and ducklings all available. Supplement feed is grown on the farm. John Franklin is also an expert butcher. He makes a delicious three-bird roast: a boned goose, stuffed with a chicken, a pheasant and apricot stuffing. He can also send Christmas boxes of vegetables grown on nearby farms and produces eggs, pork and wild boar.

Farmer's wife Judy Goodman started raising geese in the early 1980s, primarily to keep her in-laws happy at Christmas. At the time, goose was so unfashionable that only a handful of British farmers produced them commercially. Today, the Goodmans rear over 4,000 birds annually for the Michaelmas and Christmas markets, and all to the same fastidiously high standards. The birds are free to roam large paddocks, mature for the traditional 30 weeks and are fed an entirely natural, additive-free diet of grass, corn and wheat. After careful slaughter, hand-plucking and evisceration, they are hung for 14 days. The Goodmans also rear superb free-range bronze turkeys.

You may not recognise the name, but if you have eaten in a "modern British" restaurant in the last decade, there is a good chance you will have tasted their Goosnargh-branded chickens and ducks. Thanks to the initial support of regional chefs such as Paul Heathcote and Nigel Haworth, this little corner of Lancashire has become a national centre of poultry excellence. The Goosnargh ducks, corn-fed chickens and slow-growing turkeys are housed in large, roomy barns and are fed a special recipe feed, "free from any additives, growth promoters, antibiotics and medication". The geese, meanwhile, are entirely free-range. Depending on availability, J&S also sell game, such as pheasant, mallard and teal.

Those wishing to feast like 16th century feudal barons this Christmas, rejoice! For the last few years, mother and son team, Joyce and Charles Ashbridge have been rearing rare breed pigs (Gloucester Old Spot, Oxford Sandy Black, Berkshire) in model conditions at their North Yorkshire farm, mainly for the restaurant and catering trade. Clients include the likes of Borough Market's Roast, St John and the Angel Inn at Hetton. Now, however, their whole suckling piglets and porchetta - boned piglet, rolled and stuffed - are available to buy online. Tuck in.

• Collection from Thirsk Industrial Park or mail order • Last orders: 17 December 2010

You will have heard, of course, of Essex farmer Derek Kelly's KellyBronze turkeys. This hardy, slow-growing breed delivers a serious and surprising depth-of-flavour in its dense, finely-grained meat, and has come to be regarded as the ultimate Christmas centrepiece. Less well known, is that, through Kelly's franchise system, you can often buy an authentic KellyBronze, raised and slaughtered to the same standards - free ranging birds fed on a natural, drug-free diet; hand-plucked and hung for at least 14 days - locally to you. Farmer Richard Adams delivers his KellyBronze birds in Merseyside, Lancashire and Cheshire.

Among beef eaters, Longhorn is the connoisseur's choice; and among Longhorn farmers, Richard Vaughan is widely regarded as the best in the business. He was the man Heston Blumenthal sought out when trying to create the ultimate steak for Channel 4's Perfection, and his exacting customer list includes numerous Michelin-starred restaurants. Quite simply, this minority breed (ie slightly greater in number than a "rare breed") yields meat of a highly unusual complexity and flavour depth. Order your Christmas rib early to avoid disappointment, and, while you're there, pick up some sausages from Vaughan's equally famous Middle White pig herd.

Variety being the spice of life, why not shake things up this Christmas with venison? Finnebrogue Estate in County Down is home to a herd of pure-bred red deer that (slaughtered at under 24 months) produce superbly tender, full-flavoured meat. Locals can visit the production facility and buy direct, and from gourmet stores across Northern Ireland. In mainland Britain M&S stocks Finnebrogue roasting haunches and, at the butchery counters in its Bluewater and Meadowhall stores, customers can also order larger Finnebrogue joints.

• 23 Finnebrogue Road, Downpatrick, Northern Ireland; 028 4461 7525• Local collection, at M&S, ask in store for last order dates on the 1kg joints • Last order: 20 December 2010

Judith Dryden's KellyBronze turkeys are hit with discerning local chefs. They're on the menu at Oldfields in Durham and Terry Laybourne's heavy-hitting Jesmond Dene House in Newcastle. The public, meanwhile, can buy direct from the farm. Alongside turkeys, the Drydens also raise slow-growing, free-range geese. They are fed on grasses and home-grown wheat, then processed, hand-plucked and hung for 10 days, all on site. The finished birds come boxed with giblets, cooking instructions, recipes and, even, sage from the farm's kitchen garden.

Adlington supply the upmarket likes of Ocado and Booth's, but you can buy their award-winning "three bird roasts" and pampered, free-range Bronze turkeys online, too. The multi-bird roasts come in three combinations: 14-day hung barn-reared turkey, pheasant and duck; free-range goose, pheasant and chicken; or duck, guinea fowl and turkey - all bound with apple and apricot sausage meat. Adlington also retails its own-recipe brined and smoked duck breasts, and whole oak-smoked turkeys. The latter won a gold at the 2008 Great Taste Awards.

South and south west England

John Robinson & Sons, Hampshire

No mail order, but real sausage connoisseurs will find the journey down the A30 well worthwhile. This butcher sells one main variety, and it is a work of perfection. Pork shoulder meat in natural skins minced to just the right texture, with fresh sage - not too little, not too much. Favourites are the chipolatas, so good due to the sweet flavour of lamb casings. All the pork is free-range, naturally reared in Hampshire and the sage is grown in Basingstoke. Beef from this butcher is also excellent, sourced from Scotland and hung for as long as you like (Robinson hit the headlines when he defied the ban on selling beef on the bone in 1998). Call for prices and availability.

Since this dashing former racehorse trainer opened his UK shop he has been snapped up as a supplier to Heston Blumenthal's Fat Duck restaurant, so the beef should be good. And it is. Extraordinarily tender, bone-aged Black Angus beef from Ireland, slaughtered at O'Shea's family abattoir. You can see the sides of beef hanging as you enter the shop and even demand extra time for that deep, deep flavour. Seaweed-fed Orkney lamb, organic and rare-breed pork, free-range and organic chickens, wild game and wagyu beef also available. Jack O'Shea, who also has a shop in Brussels, cuts meat the continental way - ask for unusual steak cuts for quick grilling including beef bavette, beef onglet and lamb pavé.

Chris Sheen's award-winning sausages are made with outdoor-reared English pork and locally made bread. The texture is a perfect balance of lean and fat, and there's a welcome hint of white pepper. Gluten-free sausages are also available.

Mark Thomas is widely recognised as producing the finest hams in southeast England, using locally reared, free-range Suffolk pork and curing and smoking on the premises at his delightful, well-stocked village shop that has a royal warrant. The hams are a good, deep pink, not too salty - the flavour of the additional "pickle" comes through beautifully: Vintage Velvet hams are cured with port, others with cider. Available raw or cooked. Call for prices and availability.

Lamb grazed on the saltmarshes of Bridgewater Bay on the Severn Estuary. The meat takes on the flavour of the dozens of species of herbs and grasses that grow on the marshes, and is exceptionally tender.

Devon farmers Peter and Henrietta Greig head up a producer group rearing livestock to exacting standards, feeding them on grass or cereal produced by a local mill then slaughtering at a local abattoir. The meat is matured and butchered at Pipers Farm - the beef is legendary, a native Exmoor breed, Devon Ruby with a tight grain, good fat marbling and real depth of flavour.

The Greigs also make an elegantly seasoned range of ready-to-heat casseroles, using only their welfare-friendly meats. All come in generous quantities and will get cooks out of a tight spot during the festivities when the thought of preparing yet another meal is too much. Pipers Farm meat stock is another must - useful for gravy.

A family farm that has been in operation since the 1800s, specialising in free-range, French farmhouse-style Label Anglais chickens reared on their own farm in Roydon, near Harlow, Essex. The chickens are long-bodied with strong, muscular legs and their meat takes its exceptional flavour and distinctive colour from a natural diet that is rich in maize. "Special Reserve" chickens have a plumper, more "English" shape and a lighter taste. Turkeys also available.

Sebastian Hall's organic Norfolk Bronze and Norfolk Black turkeys are fed naturally and reared slowly, running outside on grass pasture in daytime from June to December. Feed is supplemented with wheat and other grains. Hall is insistent that the poultry spends as much time outside as is possible, saying it is not enough for "free-range" farmers to simply open the side of a barn. A turkey's instinct is to stay inside, he says. The turkeys (and some geese) are hung non-eviscerated for 10 days then dry-plucked by hand. Free-range non-organic birds are also available, reared to the same standard as organic but fed a natural but non-organically certified diet. Hall also farms the rare-breed Red Poll cattle, a dual-purpose breed that can be used for meat and dairy production. (He only has a limited supply, so call.)

Peter Kindersley's beautiful farm is home to a commendable organic system for poultry and other livestock. It also has its own abattoir, and Kindersley has devised a system for cleaning the water supply as it leaves the slaughterhouse by running it through a reed-bed system. All poultry is farm-bred, and the chicks enjoy a happy early life in small huts with cute "conservatories" so they can peer out into the outside world at an early age and enjoy the sun on their backs without getting cold. Traditional Norfolk Bronze, Norfolk Black and Bourbon Red turkeys roam and forage the farm's fields from two weeks old, and are given added natural supplements. Growth is slow: the Heritage breeds take over seven months to reach full weight. Kindersley also produces beef, lamb, and pork at Sheepdrove.

Copas Turkeys are pretty serious about the pedigree of their birds offering free range organic turkeys from "one of five original bronze breeds" and free range Bronze "from 13 different traditional bronze breeds". Their flocks "represent true diversity and display the natural characteristics of birds living in the wild", which should tick most boxes for the hungry Guardian reader …

Marco-Pierre White's "favourite shop in London", Allens is a traditional Victorian butchers a couple of hundred metres from Oxford Street. Built around a huge hexagonal chopping block, the interior has remained unchanged for over a century. It feels so right buying your Christmas bird here that you almost forget how good they are. This year Allens are offering free-range turkeys and geese plus, an unusual treat, the elusive capon.

• Mayfair, London; 020 74995831• Last orders: N/A

GG Sparkes, London

GG Sparkes of Old Dover Road, Blackheath have been in business since 1952. They've specialised in free-range and organic meat for over 18 years and at Christmas stock a wide range of festive poultry. Like many good urban butchers they have all the custom they need without going online but many south Londoners reckon Sparkes is worth a special trip.

If you've decided not to go the poultry route this year or if you fancy something different for meals around the holiday it's worth taking a look at DJ Barnard. They're a small family business producing their own beef, lamb, pork and excellent mutton and offering a full range of bits, bobs and challenging cuts They supply most of the good restaurants in Norfolk.

A real food-lover's secret, the tiny Bride Valley Farm Shop in Abbotsbury, Dorchester sells well-kept meat from their own herd of longhorn cattle. They don't do mail order and have all the business they can handle for their astonishingly good beef. That said, if you can find any excuse to loop through the pretty little village to pick some up you'll taste some of the finest beef in the country. Be sure to call ahead - opening hours are either of Byzantine complexity or entirely random.

Brown Cow Organics is based in Pilton, Somerset. They've been endorsed by Rick Stein, Jamie Oliver and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall for whom they produce River Cottage Yoghurt. Their traditional Organic Norfolk Black Turkeys are reared on a very small farm where they have access to pasture and orchards grazing fresh grass, apparently "within sight of Glastonbury Tor" - which must be reassuring for the soon-to-be-lunch birds.

Well Hung Meat started life on Carswell Farm in south Devon selling lambs reared on the farm to friends and family, butchered at the local abattoir and delivered to the door. After a successful decade they are now offering a selection of organic and free-range birds.

• Carswell Farm, South Devon; 0845 230 3131• Last orders: 10 December 2010 but order sooner as they sell out quick

Cornish food specialists Cornwall in your Kitchen deliver daily to top-end London restaurants and will deliver to a range of south-west London postcodes. This Christmas London customers will be able to pre-order Christmas Cornish produce, including fresh outdoor reared turkey, chipolata sausages, fish and shellfish, from 24 November.

Most ducks reared for the mass market are either kept in horribly cramped conditions without access to anything more than drinking water, and even farmers who let their ducks roam free can give them the free-range label when they have never been able to swim. It is a denial of natural behaviour and one of the crueller aspects of poultry farming. It is good to report, then, that Waitrose has addressed this issue, introducing naturally kept ducklings, reared in East Anglia, that roam freely with access to grass paddocks. All ducks have a pond to swim in and there is tree shade in every field which is apparently another essential element to duck happiness. Available whole and oven-ready; breasts, legs (on the bone) and in fillets for stir-fries and curries. Duck livers also available. Waitrose also sells welfare-friendly goose, guinea fowl and quail.

• 0800 188884• Last orders: 15 December 2010

Nationwide

Riverford, the organic veg delivery people have very respectable range of meat for Christmas. As well as a Turkey and three kinds of gammon (one of which is smoked black in the style of a Bradenham ham) and spiced beef silverside cured to Elizabeth David's original recipe adapted from the beef traditionally cured for the hunt in Melton Mowbray.

• Deliver to most of the UK; 0845 6002311• Last orders: 26 November 2010